


Beyond the Furthest Star

by Cactaceae28



Category: One Piece, Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Reincarnation, Trektober 2020, and the adventure continues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:01:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26954041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cactaceae28/pseuds/Cactaceae28
Summary: In which two old souls meet, note their similarities and —following the proud tradition of their families— proceed to do the impossible for the sake of the ones they love.(Spoilers for the Water 7&Enies Lobby arcs and The Search for Spock.)
Relationships: USS Enterprise & Going Merry
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11
Collections: Trektober 2020





	Beyond the Furthest Star

**Author's Note:**

> For Trektober Day 11: Stars/Enemies to ~~Lovers~~ Friends

Somewhere, beyond the seas, beyond the furthest, dimmest of stars, there was a place of waiting. It was a place beyond time, beyond space; this was a place for the klabautermänner to rest. It was where the spirits of the ships that had been born out of their crews’ love and care could maintain the core of their existence once the tether to their native worlds was destroyed; once the vessel that had seen them come to life was destroyed itself.

And somewhere in that removed place, far, far up in its sky, nested among the stars, there was a door, made of black marble and silver lockset and hinges. It stood alone, nearly invisible, a promise never fulfilled for those inhabiting the world below.

Sitting on the bay facing the enormous door, there was a woman with long silver hair and eyes dark like a night without moon. Her long legs dangled over the edge of the pier and she was swinging them absently, hitting the wood below with her feet unaware of the dents she was leaving behind with each strike.

She didn't know how long she had been there or what would come next. She just sat by the moor and watched the sea and the sky with clouded eyes.

Dainty footsteps sounded in her direction, and the woman blinked, looking back for the first time to see another person approaching. The visitor had the form of a young child with curly hair and two lamb's horns protruding from her head. Once he recognized the child, the woman scowled and looked away.

"Enterprise! Hi!" The child cheered happily once she reached her side, plopping down unceremoniously by her side and apparently utterly unaware of the fact that she was unwelcome.

"Going Merry."

"Merry's fine."

Enterprise lifted an eyebrow in response and turned her back to continue staring at the door in the starred canopy, ignoring her. Merry huffed and climbed to her feet. Stomping her foot with a loud clank, she reached for Enterprise’s shoulder and shook her harshly.

“Hey, hey! Don’t ignore me! I want to talk to you!”

“If you won't leave otherwise, talk,” Enterprise snapped, freeing herself with a jerk.

“What’s your problem?” Merry huffed, pouting childishly. “I haven’t done anything to you. We have never met before!”

“I do not have a problem with you.”

“Liar, Liar, pants on fire,” Merry sing-songed, sticking out her tongue. “Come onnn, I really need your help. What have I done? Why don’t you like me?”

Enterprise gritted her teeth and said nothing.

“En-ter-prise,” Merry insisted, “Are you playing hard to get? Is it because I’m so pretty?”

“No."

“Then why? You know I’m not gonna leave until you tell me, right? If it’s something I’ve done, I can pay you a recompense or something. I don’t know _how_ but I will!”

“It cannot be fixed.”

“I want to try!”

"You can’t!” Enterprise shouted, standing up and turning to face her angrily, “Can't you see? It’s because you _saved_ them!"

Everyone knew the story of Merry around these parts, how she had pushed past every limit of her wooden body to brave one of the worst storms in the record of her world and how she had rescued her crew, taking them to safe waters.

Enterprise had gone beyond what anyone could have expected of her as well, but, in the end, she didn't _know_. She didn't know if it had been enough to save her beloved First or if she had just cast her Captain and Crew in an abandoned, unpredictable planet where they would die in disgrace.

"Just what do you want from me?" She choked out.

Merry looked at her and though she still had the same goofy grin on her face, there was a wicked, knowing glint in her sky-blue eyes like Enterprise had just proved something to her.

"You know..." Merry said, unperturbed by her interlocutor's ire and pointing up. "You know, there _is_ a way to open the doors of the Shipyard. But it's dangerous. If we fall down during the journey, we would break and vanish forever, even from the memory of those on the Other Side."

"What?"

"You want to go back, right? To be with your nakama?" Merry said gesturing wildly. "I want to be with mine too, but the way out is very, very dangerous. If I went alone I'd have zero chances of making it."

"How would you even know that?" Enterprise asked suspiciously. Almost without realizing it, her hand trailed down the side of her arm, following the ridges of an old scar marring her metal skin. Could it be true? Could she trust this happy caravel, who knew so little about the true vastness of the universe, on something so impossible?

Merry stuck a finger in her nose and Enterprise grimaced, letting her arms fall to her sides.

The small klabautermann shrugged. "I was bored so I went exploring. If you cross the sea past the eternal storm, and then you climb far enough, the mountains go up, up, up, so much that you can almost touch the sky! There was some old dude there, like older than old. He told me that he has a way to open the door in the sky, but then we’d have to jump! And if we didn’t make it or weren’t fast enough once we were on the air, we would never be able to try again.”

“That sounds too straightforward. What’s the catch?” Enterprise said, feeling a bit of a Scottish brogue seep into her tone in turn with her skepticism.

“I dunno,” Merry said, tugging at a metal ring decorating one of her horns. “The guy said that even if we managed to leave, we wouldn’t be ‘as we are now’. We could join our crews and travel with them again, but we would be taking a different form to ‘maintain the natural order of things’ or something, I stopped listening ‘cause he was boring.” 

She grinned sunnily and added, “Besides, it doesn’t matter what shape I take or even if I get damaged on the way. I saw my crew’s new shipwright, and he’s the best in all of the Grand Line and the Four Seas combined. And if he fails, I have my Usopp too.”

Enterprise smirked, " _My_ shipwright is the best in the galaxy."

Going Merry laughed delightedly. When she calmed, she put a hand of her hip cockily and said, “I can get us past the storm, no problem. I know how to navigate them now. But, I need a partner who can take me to the stars. I need someone who can fly, truly fly” she concluded.

At Enterprise’s silence, Merry kept talking, “no one else wants to try it," she motioned to the door in front of them, "but I think you are like me. I think you’ll try."

She looked up with big, doleful eyes and Enterprise looked away, towards the enormous door. She sighed, knowing that the only reason she had spent so long in that spot looking up was because she had been hoping it might open, and she might have been able to at least see the other side.

Enterprise closed her eyes, but there was really no decision to make. Other klabautermänner may be content with waiting in the Shipyard, but even if her parting hadn't been as it was, Enterprise felt she couldn't bear to be separated from her crew for so long.

If, she thought with a bit of shame, if it had been Robert or Christopher on the other side... she had loved them, of course, and she had become who she was while Chris was captain; but if it had been one of them, perhaps she wouldn't have this burning need to risk everything for whatever time they could still have together.

For Jim, though. There was no question; for Jim and the crew that had served under him, she would follow this strange spirit, take the one-in-a-million chance and fight with everything she had to raise victorious.

With a quirk of a smile, she stood up, ignoring Merry’s little squeal. “It would seem logical to join forces, then.”

And so they did.

\-----

_During the nights when the weather is clear and the sea is calm, Sunny opens his hatches just a sliver until the starred sky can be seen from inside and listens to little Mini Merry II’s stories. She has inherited his sniper’s penchant for tall, false tales, but Sunny loves them. They are inspiring. Perhaps, when their Captain has completed his goal on the seas he will wonder as well, or perhaps someone he inspires will, someday, look up to the stars and start a whole new journey._

_Enterprise-A doesn’t know if they belonged in the same time, the same universe. She doesn’t know if any of the distant lights registered on her sensors might house that world of water and absurd abilities. Indeed, she knows that the odds are they will never meet again. Still, when she’s orbiting a new planet, Enterprise-A scans its seas and deep in her server she keeps a record of caravels and marine wonders, waiting for the unlikely chance that it may be needed one day._

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! :)


End file.
